RED FANG

It’s weird that after only three times through Chicago is starting to feel like a home away from home. The boys and girls at Reggie’s took great care of us, and saw a lot of familiar faces. Thanks to everyone who came out. Okay enough of the ass kissin’, let’s get to the dirt. After the show we hijacked Cyrus out of the Saviours van and headed across town to meet up with our buddy Cary who you might remember from here . He was just shutting his bar down and we walked in just in time to watch him kick out a well-dressed man in his late fifties who had brought in his own Busch tall boy. I knew things were going to get weird from there. He poured enough tequila down our throats to kill a Chihuahua and we headed to a bar by his house to do some more damage. By the time we finally made back to Cary’s house the only thing I could think about was eating the greasiest food I could find. He pointed me in the direction of Loraine’s Dinner, which I could have sworn he said was one block to the ri...

If all the other dates on this tour shit the bed, there will always be Chicago. For starters we stayed with John's old friend Cary (I hope I spelled that right): Cary is one of the those guys who felt like a long time friend after knowing him for two minutes . Our first introduction was after I was heckled out of the driver's seat, due to my inability to parallel park. Cary, who had been watching the whole thing, started laughing at me before I even had a chance to shake his hand. I knew we were going to hit if off right away. Within five minutes of entering Cary's apartment Bryan got all Ben Kenobi on Sherman: As we loaded in the snow started falling, making the already thirteen degree weather even more awesome. Luckily the wind was blowing a mellow 400 m.p.h. If you were facing into the wind it was damn near impossible to see. At one point, trying to make it to the van, I walked into a parked car. Not my best moment. All that pales in comparison to the fact that, next mon...

It was brought to my attention here (scroll to comments) that last time we were in town I didn’t do enough blogging about Aaron’s long-time friend Chad Belfor. Actually I’m surprised there wasn’t more comments on this subject. The people need to know what is going on with Chad at all times. The man is the heartbeat of the city, if Chicago is a heart, he is the Aorta. You put your finger on him to see if the city is still alive. For those of you who don’t know him let me fill you in on the enigma, wrapped in a puzzle, that is Chad Belfor: The first thing you might notice is that Chad is a deep well of emotion, look at him: But Chad is much more complex than that. Chad is a man who wears many hats. Husband, PGA card holder, father, former NASCAR driver, musician, gold medal Olympic athlete… Some of these things could be used to describe him. It’s no wonder that confidence just oozes from his pores: You got to be careful though because after he knocks back a couple tall cold ones the wil...

Chicago, IL. 11/11/11 What the hell did happen in Chicago? It must have been a good one because I have no photos or memory of anything. Milwaukee, WI. 11/12/11 What in Paul’s bunion did John do to make the photo look like this? Does he have a “Gary Busey’s brain” setting on that thing or what? Wait! We were trying to figure out why our green room looked as if Keith Richards’ interior decorator got hold of some bad E: Maybe the entire club was cloaked in Timothy Leary’s ghost. On mushrooms. Sauget,IL. 11/13/11 I wish that we were a crappy art rock band so that I could just put up this photo I took of the power plant behind the club and write a poem about the bands dark brooding feelings. All the while twirling the end of my scarf with my fingerless glove clad, imported cigarette-clutching fingers. You would be able to feel the angst we harbored towards our parents for not getting us leather seats in the Lexus we got for high school graduation in every line. It would be deep! But on the ...

This was one hell of a weekend and there is a lot to cover to I’m going to keep it short and sweet in an attempt to not bore the living crap outta you. About three months ago our friend Luke from Kuma’s called up and wanted to know if the boys would be interested in playing the fifth annual Kuma’s birthday bash. A full day event of taking in all things rock, meat, and barley? Done. Flying to a show was a first for us and the rest of us were a little scared since John doesn’t do well on planes. The was a minute were we thought we might have to get all B.A. Baracus on his ass and slip him a roofie in his milk, but it turns out a couple cocktails in the airport bar set him straight. Carry picked us up at the airport and we rallied across town to catch up with J.J. who was so happy to see us he broke into Riverdance. Woke up the next morning, headed to Kuma’s and immediately dove head first into a burger. Look at that damn thing. You have to be part python just to get your mouth around it...

Quick note: I put this in one solid post so you could read it in order instead of having to start at the bottom. Also this, like 99% of this blog, was written in the back of a van doing 75 MPH, crammed filled with a bunch of dudes crawling all over, filling said van with their own brand of noxious gasses and generally being distracting. So I apologize for any typos. You know what scratch that. No I don’t. You’re reading a blog written by a high school graduate about a bunch of dudes driving around the countryside playing heavy rock music. What do you expect, Hemmingway? All right we got a lot of ground to cover, you comfy? In your favorite chair, maybe a nice cup of coco or a white wine spritzer? Okay let’s go. Pontiac, Michigan 10/13/09 As to keep with his tradition of keeping me pissed off, John took yet another crap crowd photo: Surprise, huh? For the life of me I cannot remember the bartenders name at the Crofoot. but he is a hell of a nice guy. If you ever stop by keep an eye out ...